A young Guyanese calypso composition is merely rhymes and melody of their experiences

Dear Editor,

So we are advancing step by step, day by day into the dark dungeon of a dictatorship, despair and disunity with the walls decorated with donkey’s dung. With disappointment I learnt of the disqualifying of a child from the Mashramani calypso competition, by the Ministry of Education, based on the words “Tell me, how a guh survive with 6.5?” The reply in defence of the disqualification by the Allied Arts Unit, Ministry of Education, is spurious and unfortunate. Today’s societies all over the world are faced with children who are maturing faster than previous generations. Today, children from kindergarten and primary schools are conscious of the events affecting them in their communities, their schools and their homes. So when a young Guyanese composes a calypso for Mashramani, the youngster is merely putting in rhyme and song what they are experiencing.

Young calypsonians and young artistes must not be inhibited providing the words are neither banal, vulgar or obscene and I find it bewildering that the Unit of Allied Arts should attempt to publicly defend this rejection of the child’s presentation for Mashramani. At public performances, our politicians and leaders ought not to be thin-skinned and over sensitive unless it appears to be the case they are moving and dancing into the dark dungeon of a dictatorship, despair and disunity with the walls decorated with donkey’s dung. This is manifested by the Government bullyism of the Guyana Teachers Union and unbelievable disdain for the utilization of collective bargaining coupled with threats from the highest level similar to the dangling of the sword of Damocles hanging over the collective heads of teachers and their Union. As I did in an earlier correspondence, I asked, are the people at the helm of this PPP government not betraying what the founding fathers of the Party stood for and proclaimed? That is, governance for the working people.

The absurdity of the failure of the President to instruct his Ministers of Labour and Education to summon the GTU to discuss this matter is a frightening turn of events. Editor and citizens, is this the same government that in 2018, through its, as we say “Boss man”, demanded a 50% increase for Teachers at a time when we did not have the abundance of cash now available to this Government? A somersault that leaves me dizzy. If the strike is suspended on Friday, February 16, 2024 as I understand the Union announced, we the people, parents and patriots must maintain the struggle until justice to our teachers and to workers in the public sector is achieved. Sincerely,

Hamilton Green

Elder